Tara Elgin Holley

Tara Elgin Holley is the Director of Development of The Episcopal Church. The former Vice President of Institutional Advancement at Seminary of the Southwest. she is a fundraising professional with a 30-year-career within the non-profit sector. Tara Holley has served as senior fundraiser for three major universities including The University of Texas at Austin, Texas State University and The George Washington University. She has served as consultant to a number of social-service organizations in Texas and Washington, D.C. including United Ways of Texas and Appleseed Foundation. As the Senior Counsel for Custom Development Solutions, Holley completed a $65M campaign raising major gift/matching funds for the Kroc Corps Community Center Campaign of the Salvation Army of Greenville. She continues to serve in an advisory capacity as Counsel-At-Large representing the consulting firm of Custom Development Solutions, Inc. Art and cultural institutions that have benefited from her expertise include Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego; Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, Austin; ARTPACE of San Antonio, Austin Museum of Art (AMOA) and Washington Performing Arts Society. Formerly a program officer and grants administrator for the Texas Commission on the Arts and an intern with Texas Council for the Humanities, she is experienced both as a funder and a grantee.

Holley holds degrees in music and musicology and completed her Master of Musicology from the University of Texas after completing studies at the Royal Conservatory of Music, Den Hague. In 1997 Tara co-authored the award-winning book, My Mothers Keeper, published by William Morrow. The book has won numerous mental-health and literary awards.

A sixth-generation Texan, Holley is proud of her Episcopalian roots. Elgin, Texas is named after her great-grandfather, Deputy Land Commissioner, Robert Morris Elgin, who moved to Texas from Virginia in 1825. For 38 years he served as Sr. Warden at Christ Church Cathedral in Houston, Texas, after saving St. David's Episcopal Church from splitting during the Civil War. Tara has two children: 27-year-old daughter Kate is an artist and and 33-year-old son Peter works at The Washington Post. She is married to Cliff Avery, President of GCP Association Services.